Miramichi Sports: Caps beat T-Wolves 7-5

By Darcey McLaughlin

MIRAMICHI - It was a good game with a bad result. The Miramichi Timberwolves returned to home to the Miramichi Civic Centre Saturday night where they lost 7-5 to the Summerside Western Capitals.

Despite the two goal loss, it was a close, hard hitting, entertaining game from start to finish and Bruce Hornbrook gave fans something to cheer about recording a hat trick on the night.

T-Wolves head coach Rob MacDonald said his team played well, but just couldn't shake the Caps.

“Every time we got momentum back they scored the next shift,” he said.

Miramichi jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. Philip Richer scored at 3:39 of the first followed by Hornbrook's first at 15:42 with the man advantage. Colton Parson would answer before the end of the first at 18:11.

Mike Szmatula scored his first of three in the game just 49 seconds into the second to tie the game 2-2. Hornbrook netted his second at 7:29 skating in untouched and dangling the puck in front of Caps goalie Chris Gallant before going backhand glove side. Then Szmatula bagged his second at 7:56, while Blaize Bridges scored for the Caps at 11:32. Alex Scully then scored a strange one at 14:03. The puck was knocked straight up in the air, did not touch anything, and fell back to the ice almost right on the blade of Scully's stick, who then popped it into the net. Stephen Anderson scored for Summerside at 16:41.

Hornbrook complete the hat trick goals at at 7:33 of the third to tie the game 5-5. But that would be the last home side goal of the game. Szmatula scored his hat trick goal at 11:36 on the power play and Brock Morrison finished the scoring at 13:51.

Parsons and Szmatula had four point nights for Summerside.

Jordan Kennedy started the game for Miramichi and played two periods before giving way to Tyler Piercy at the beginning of the third. Kennedy stopped 18 of 23 shots while Piercy stopped 9 of 11. Gallant stopped 31 of 36 as the T-Wolves out shot the Caps 36-34.

With the loss Miramichi remains last in the Maritime Junior Hockey League Meek Division with 23 points, three points out of the fourth and final playoff spot held by the Campbellton Tigers.

MacDonald admitted after the game he'd hoped the team would have improved more by this point in the season.

“I thought that we would be a little bit better with the situation but we're coming up short on most nights just a little bit,” he said.

Although MacDonald would not make excuses, the schedule since January has been brutal. Saturday's game was just the second home game of the month. The team has played the rest on the road, including the last five games in Nova Scotia, including a game Friday night in Yarmouth.

They were also without the help of some key players. Billy Gaston and Tommy Bezeau are both out of the line-up nursing upper body injuries while James Williams was not dressed Saturday night after sustaining a lower body injury in the T-Wolves 4-1 loss to the Mariners Friday night.

The T-Wolves are at home next weekend against a pair of division rivals. The Dieppe Commandos are at the MCC Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. while the Tigers are in town for a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday afternoon.